Animal Influence I - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

Kelty McKinnon
Janet Rosenberg and Associates’ Red / Research Evolve Design, competition finalist
ecosystem conditions. Climate change will result
in evolving migration patterns- scientists estimate
migrational behaviour will shift over the next 30
years. Olin created habitat modules, similar to a
green roof, which allows vegetation to be easily
inserted and removed from the bridge’s structural
grid, should the need arise to change habitat
type. These habitat modules would be glassreinforced
plastic trays that arrive on the site preplanted
with species.
Animals learn and adapt their behaviour
according to environmental circumstance. Early
crossing research in Banff showed that large
carnivores like grizzly bears and wolves, while
initially wary and reluctant to cross bridges, in five
years changed their migration patterns to accept
them. Crossing bridges need to be adaptive to
growing research. Observation has shown that
animals prefer a more open crossing, and bridges
have subsequently widened to accommodate
this. Early crossings in Europe were narrow and
sparsely vegetated- animals were in full view and
earshot of the road. Animals obviously prefer
crossings that screen them from the noise and
bright lights of highway traffic. Most of the
49
competition entries responded with scooped
shapes with wide centers and flipped up sides,
creating a valley landscape that puts wildlife at
ease by blocking sightlines and traffic noise (4).
Finally, the bridges needed to be
educational, revelatory, and communicative. The
creation of iconic, aesthetically compelling
structures raises public awareness of the function
of the bridge, and the issues of landscape
fragmentation. Janet Rosenberg’s scheme
created an iconic, recognizable form – a bright
red, wood-core fibreglass bridge that extended 3
meandering fingers into the forest to encourage
animals to cross. Rosenberg’s team worked with
Temple Grandin to help them understand the
highly sensory world of the animal, and learned
that animals prefer to move in curves, and
navigate through smell, touch, sound and vision
(5).
HYAPER NATURE- MVVA
First place went to the joint team of Michael Van
Valkenburgh Associates and HNTB Engineers, who
succeeded in providing wildlife bridges four